"Torak," cut in Bale, "this is your chance to show them you're not a Soul-Eater!"
"If they don't shoot him first," put in Renn.
Torak ignored her.
Within moments Bale had the boat in the water and Torak was ready, but suddenly he leaped out and ran back to Renn. Untying his knife-sheath, he pressed it into her hands. "Keep it safe," he muttered. "But it's yours; you'll need it!"
"No time to explain. Bale will tell you." Over his shoulder he added, "She's after meandthe fire-opal-- she mustn't get both!"
The World Spirit was turning day to dusk as Torak made the skinboat fly across the water. Thunder growled. The air crackled with foreboding. The flood could come at any moment. In his mind he saw the creatures of Forest and Lake
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fleeing for safety. Elk, deer, and horses racing for the ridges; beaver and otter scampering up the slopes as best they could; squirrel and marten seeking refuge in the sturdiest oaks. Even the fish would be hiding at the bottom of the Lake.
And the wolves? This must be why they'd fled the island, because they'd sensed what was coming. Torak hoped they'd taken the cubs high enough--and that Wolf was with them.
In the east, the sky was a boiling mass of storm clouds. Soon lightning would lance the ice river, releasing the awesome fury of the waters behind. Torak pictured the flood engulfing the Lake: devastating islands, washing away the Otter camp and everything in its path.
The wind strengthened, and still he paddled. He was almost spent when he reached the western shore and put in just south of the Axehandle river. No sign of boats or people. Only the reeds, flattened by the wind.
Leaving the skinboat on the shore, he slipped into a thicket at the foot of the ridge. The trees moaned, warning him back. For all he knew, the whole slope might be crawling with hunters on the lookout for him, and all he had was his axe. Not much use against arrows and spears. Exhausted, he soon had to stop for breath. He was
wondering which way to go when something leaped from the junipers and knocked him to the ground. At last Wolf had found Tall Tailless!
In a snap his sadness at leaving the pack was chased away, and he was covering his pack-brother's face in snuffle-licks.
I couldn't leave you!he told Tall Tailless.I'm back now and I'm never leaving, just like you said! But Tall Tailless's greeting was rushed and urgent, and Wolf caught his mood. He smelled Viper-Tongue on his pack-brother. He sensed great worry and danger.What do I do?he asked. Find the ravens, Tall Tailless replied. That made Wolf cross.Why them? No,said Tall Tailless,not the birds. Wolves that smell of raven. Find the pack leader!
Now Wolf understood. Giving his pack-brother a nose-nudge to acknowledge this, he raced off through the trees.
The great denning place of the taillesses wasn't many lopes away, and he was soon in the bracken at its edge. Stealthily, he padded forward to find the pack leader. The denning place seethed with anger, and Wolf heard much snarling among the boar, wolf, and raven packs. Then he caught the quiet, strong tones of the 292
raven leader. This tailless never yowled loudly. He didn't need to. He had the respect of all the others.
Placing his paws with care, Wolf crept closer.
The dogs were restless, but on the way, Wolf had rolled in a pile of auroch droppings, so he approached unsmelled. When he'd got as far as he could, he crouched down to wait.
Soon the raven leader felt his stare and saw him.
Ah, he was cunning! Like a normal wolf, he grazed Wolf's glance with his own, then looked away, so the others wouldn't notice. A little later, he left the denning place: calmly, so as not to awaken suspicions.
When Wolf knew he was following, he headed off to find Tall Tailless.
When Torak glimpsed Fin-Kedinn striding through the willowherb, it didn't occur to him to hide. He rose to his feet and stood in the open. The Raven Leader saw him, and his face lit up. Torak's heart twisted. He'd missed Fin-Kedinn more than he'd realized.
"Torak!" Fin-Kedinn gripped his shoulder. He glanced behind him. "Come. We're too close to camp, and Aki's nosing around after you." With Wolf trotting after them, they moved into a wind-tossed thicket. The Raven Leader's sharp eyes searched Torak's face, and took in the scar on his chest. "Where's Renn?"
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"Safe with Bale on the north shore. Fin-Kedinn, you've got to listen!" As briefly as he could, he told the Raven Leader of the coming flood. Fin-Kedinn heard it without question or interruption.
"You've got to get the clans to higher ground," said Torak. "Right now! The flood could come at any moment!"
The Raven Leader's face was unfathomable as ever, but Torak knew from the glint in his eyes that his thoughts were racing. "Everyone's in camp," he said, "arguing about the best way to hunt you. That'll make them easier to move." "I've got a skinboat," said Torak. "I'll find the Otter camp and warn them."
"No. They'd shoot you before you got the chance."
"But someone's got to."
"I'll see to it."
"And the clans?"
"I'll get them up to the Hogback." He jerked his head at the ridge behind them. "You get up there too, fast as you can. Try to reach the south side--there'll be fewer people." Torak nodded. But as he made to go, Fin-Kedinn held him back. "Where's the Viper Mage?"
"I don't know. On the north cliff, I think."
Fin-Kedinn looked grim. "She hasn't finished with you yet. I know her, Torak. Never underestimate her.
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Never forget that she might be closer than you think."
Torak hadn't told him of the fire-opal and he didn't now, but as the Raven Leader turned, he said, "Fin-Kedinn. You wouldn't be here--in danger--if it weren't for me. I'm sorry." A shadow crossed the Raven Leader's face. "I cast you out. You're not the one who should be sorry." He touched Torak's arm. "Get as high as you can. Go!" The wind screamed in Torak's ears as he scrambled up the slope, while Wolf raced ahead. The Forest was dark as night, and the trees thrashed and groaned. He was halfway up when he had to stop, bent double, chest heaving. Slumped against a pine, he told Wolf to go on without him. Wolf hesitated.
Lightning flared. Thunder crashed directly overhead. Rain pattered on the leaves--and swiftly became a downpour.
Torak saw Rip and Rek take cover in an oak tree. Yes. Climb the tree. No time for anything else. Maybe the Forest would protect him, too. Go!he told Wolf again, and Wolf--sensing what he meant to do---turned and sped to safety.
In the distance, Torak heard a deeper reverberation behind the thunder: an echoing boom that he'd heard before, in the Far North. The boom of breaking ice. 295
He stumbled for the oak--tripped--and fell headlong in the mud. Lightning flickered on a footprint by his hand. Behind him, a branch snapped. He rolled sideways just as Aki's axe thudded into the root where his head had been. "Got you at last!" bellowed the Boar Clan boy. With his good arm he tugged at his axe, which he'd buried in the root.
"Aki, are you mad?" shouted Torak against the wind. "The flood is coming! We've got to get into the trees!"
"I said I'd get you and I will!" yelled Aki.
More lightning, more thunder. The ice river boomed across the Lake.
As he struggled to his feet, Torak saw that Aki wasn't driven by hatred, but by fear of failing his father--and against that there was no reasoning. Leaving him yanking at the axe, Torak raced for the oak and leaped for the lowest branch. Desperation lent him strength, and he was soon ten paces up. "Aki!" he shouted. "Leave the axe! Climb!"
Another boom from the ice river--and suddenly Aki let go of the axehandle and ran for the oak. But he was heavier than Torak, couldn't reach the lowest branch. "Grab my hand!" Torak leaned down as far as he could.
Not far enough. And Aki couldn't climb with only one arm.
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Through the rain, Torak saw the Boar Clan boy's right arm strapped to his chest: the arm that he, Torak, had broken when he'd sent Aki crashing into the rapids. With a snarl, Torak leaped from the tree and li
nked his hands to make a step. "Quick, climb!"
Aki was aghast. Then he put his foot on Torak's hands, and Torak boosted him into the tree with the last of his strength.
The roar came again, but this time it wasn't ice, Torak realized; it was the flood. Far in the distance he saw it: a giant wall of water powering across the Lake-obliterating islands, uprooting trees, coming for him. Aki was shouting and leaning down to give him his hand, but now it was Torak who couldn't reach. He wasn't going to make it.
In the moment before the flood hit, he saw Wolf racing toward him. Torak staggered to meet him--he flung his arms around his pack-brother's neck ... ... and the wave took them both.
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THIRTY-SIX
Torak came to his senses lying on his back, with rain pattering on his face. A dead fish hung in the birch tree above him. The storm had passed. The flood had thrown him onto a stony hillside strewn with broken saplings. There was no trace of Wolf. Torak prayed that he'd found his way to safety. He raised himself on one elbow. He was battered and bruised, but otherwise unhurt. He was also surrounded.
Behind a forest of spears--all pointed at him--he saw a throng of Boar and Wolf and Raven, maybe eighty
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strong. Some of them he knew--Thull, Raut, Maheegun--but they stared at him as if he were a stranger. To a man, they were filthy, frightened, and eager for the kill. An arrow thudded into the mud by his thigh. He got to his feet. He was alone and weaponless. The flood had taken his axe.
Then he saw Wolf on the slope behind them, preparing to leap to his aid.
Stay away! Torak barked.Too many! Wolf didn't move. Agitated murmurs. They didn't like him speaking wolf. A stone struck his temple. He managed to stay standing. If he went down now, it would be the end.
"No stones." A familiar voice spoke, and the spears parted to let Fin-Kedinn through. Leaning heavily on his staff, he moved toward Torak, then faced the throng, shielding him with his body. "Stand aside, Fin-Kedinn," cried the Boar Clan Leader. "I found the outcast! To me goes the honor of the kill!" "No!" Aki pushed forward. "You can't do this! He saved my life!" The Boar Clan Leader turned on his son, and Aki quailed--but stood his ground. "He could have saved himself, but instead he helped me! Father, you 299 can't kill him; it's not right!"
"Not right?" With his fist, the Boar Clan Leader struck his son a blow which sent him flying. "He's an outcast! That's the law!"
"How can you say that?" shouted Bale, shouldering his way through. "Torak saved you all!"
"He warned you of the flood!" panted Renn behind him. She looked bedraggled and furious. "If it weren't for Torak, you'd have drowned, every last one of you!" "Don't listen to her!" cried an Otter man, the only one Torak could see. "All this is his fault! The outcast angered the Lake;hecaused the flood!" "No, Yolun," said Fin-Kedinn. "Not Torak. The Viper Mage."
"The Viper Mage!" sneered the Boar Clan Leader. "So you say, but where is she?There'sthe Soul-Eater!" He jabbed his spear at Torak. "He's no Soul-Eater," said Fin-Kedinn. "He cut out the mark; you can all see the scar."
But the Boar Clan Leader had the support of the crowd, and it lent him courage. "He's an outcast. The law says an outcast must die!"
"Then the law must change!" retorted the Raven Leader.
"Why? Because you say so?"
"Because it's right."
"He's a Soul-Eater and an outcast--"
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"He's my foster son!" roared Fin-Kedinn.
Ravens flew up from the trees. People shrank back.
Nervously, the Boar Clan Leader licked his lips. "Since when?"
"Since now," snapped the Raven Leader.
"Fin-Kedinn!" called Renn. "Catch!" She threw him Torak's knife, and Fin-Kedinn caught it, then drew the blade across his forearm, raising beads of blood. Grasping Torak's wrist, he did the same to him, and they clasped hands as the Raven Leader spoke the words of fostering. Then he turned on the crowd and his blue eyes blazed. "If he stays outcast, then so do I! Kill him--and you'll have to kill me, too!"
The Boar Clan Leader gripped his spear, but made no move.
No one stirred.
But Torak sensed that not even the Raven Leader could hold them for long. He saw the violence in their grimy faces; the desperation with which they clutched axes and spears. They'd just survived a disaster; they needed someone to blame. And if Fin-Kedinn stood in their way--or Bale or Renn--they would get themselves killed. Taking his knife from the Raven Leader, Torak said quietly, "I don't want your blood on my hands."
The Boar Clan Leader taunted Torak. "Hiding behind your foster father?"
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"Fin-Kedinn," urged Torak, "I've got to face them on my own."
Reluctantly the Raven Leader moved aside.
"Where's your courage now, outcast?" jeered the Boar Leader.
"Right here," said Torak.
It was a strange relief to be confronting them at last. "No more hiding--I'm sick of it!" he cried as he circled the ring of spears, his arms spread wide. "Here I am! You can kill me if you want! Whocaresif I'm the wrong target? Whocaresif this is what the Soul-Eaters want? The Oak Mage--the Eagle Owl Mage--the Viper Mage--they're still out there! Kill me, and you solvenothing!"
"This is a trick," spat the Boar Clan Leader. "Don't listen.He'sthe Soul-Eater!"
"Iwasa Soul-Eater," Torak flung back. "They made me one against my will." With his fist he struck his scar. "I cut out their mark--with this!" Brandishing his knife, he flicked a glance at Renn, and her lips parted as she guessed what he meant to do.
"My father gave me this knife as he lay dying!" Torak told them. "And here's how I choose to use it: to prove to you--once and for all--that I'm no Soul-Eater!" There was a ringing in his ears as he unwound the headband which bound the handle. The last layer came
away, and he let fall the buckskin and tilted the hilt to drop its dreadful burden into his palm. The cold red light of the fire-opal blazed out. The Boar Clan Leader gasped. Fin-Kedinn's hand tightened on his staff.
Terror and awe filled every face.
"The fire-opal," said Torak, holding it up for all to see. "The heart of Soul-Eater power. This is the last fragment of the one my father shattered.My father"--he glared at Maheegun--"who defied the Soul-Eaters and broke their power! And now it'smine!" A soft voice spoke. "Give it me."
Torak turned.
The Viper Mage stood on the ridge above him, twenty paces beyond the ring of spears. Her face and limbs wore the sacred clay of the Otter Clan, and calmly she gazed down upon them: inhuman, invincible. A shiver ran through the crowd. "The Soul-Eater ... The Viper Mage is come...."
"Stay back," warned Seshru, stretching out her green hand and sweeping them with her forefinger. "Death shall come to any who attempt to harm me." Such was the power of the Soul-Eaters--such the terror the Viper Mage inspired--that not one of them moved.
"Give it me," she said to Torak, and her words were a caress meant only for him.
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He fought to look away from that perfect green face.
A movement caught his eye. Some distance behind the Viper Mage, Wolf stood watching. Silently Torak warded him back. The Soul-Eater was too strong even for Wolf. "Give it me," repeated Seshru.
Unable to resist, Torak met her gaze. He forgot the spears, he forgot Bale and Renn and Fin-Kedinn and Wolf. Nothing existed on this ruined hillside except the Viper Mage and the fire-opal, hot and heavy in his hand. "I will," he said at last. "I will give it to you." Everyone gasped.
Stooping, Torak placed the fire-opal on a boulder between himself and the Viper Mage. "Take it," he said. "It's yours."
Seshru's black lips parted in a triumphant smile.
Still stooping, Torak snatched a lump of granite in his fist. He raised it high, and the eyes of the Viper Mage widened in horror. As she whipped out her knife and leaped toward him, he shouted, "Take it! Take the fire-opal!" He saw Renn nock an arrow to her bow and aim at her mother; Bale grab the weapons from her hands and take
aim in his turn. He saw Seshru give a terrible scream and fall with an arrow in her breast as he brought the granite crashing down and shattered the fire-opal to fragments.
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Silence rang from hill to hill.
The granite fell from Torak's hand as he stared at Bale. The Seal boy stood panting, Renn's bow in his hand.
Still alive, the scarlet fragments of the fire-opal glittered in the mud.
Still alive, the Viper Mage reached for them: writhing like a snake that has been cut in two.
Renn burst through the throng. Clawing the fragments of the fire-opal in a handful of mud, she pressed them into Seshru's palm and clenched the green hand in a fist around them, then tied it shut with Torak's discarded headband. "There," she breathed. "You've got what you wanted! The fire-opal dies with you!" Seshru gazed at the scarlet light bleeding through her fingers, and bared her teeth. "This--is not the end," she hissed. Blood trickled from her mouth. Her eyes glazed. As her souls left her body, the red glow between her fingers flickered and died. Grimly, Fin-Kedinn raised his staff. "The Soul-Eater is dead," he declared. "Let all bear witness: The outcast shall be outcast no more!" After a moment's hesitation, Maheegun bowed his assent.
Then the Boar Clan Leader. Then Yolun for the Otters.
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Then all the others.
Renn stayed on her knees by the Viper Mage, watching the rain wash away her blood in muddy rivulets.
She's too close to the body, thought Torak. The souls of the Viper Mage must be perilously near.
Quickly he took Renn's medicine horn and poured earthblood into his palm, then grasped her hand and, making sure that she still wore her finger guard, dipped her forefinger in the ochre and helped her draw the Death Marks on her mother's forehead, heart, and heels. Then he pulled her gently away from the corpse. The crowd parted to let someone through.
Wolf's hackles were raised, his lips peeled back in a snarl as he walked stiffly toward the corpse, stalking something no one else could see. As the rain fell, Torak watched his pack-brother leap--snap the air--and race off into the Forest, chasing the souls of the Viper Mage away from the living. 306